BOOK REVIEW - Steve Lukather's "The Gospel According to Luke"

From triumph to tragedy and back, Toto's Steve Lukather is a pop/rock survivor

Steve Lukather calls it as he sees it. And after four decades and selling 40 plus million albums with his band Toto, he's earned the right to speak his mind, which he does with humor and heartbreak in his new memoir "The Gospel According to Luke."

Chronicling his improbable journey from introverted kid to pop/rock icon, the book takes readers along with Lukather on his wild musical ride. "The odds of a kid from North Hollywood getting to work with three out of four Beatles and being in a band with Ringo Starr for almost seven years has the same odds as me being the first man on Venus,” Lukather tells me when asked about his rise to international acclaim.

But amidst the comradery and chaos, the overarching theme of "The Gospel" is Lukather's tireless work ethic, which catapulted him to the forefront of musical royalty, playing sessions for artists like Michael Jackson and Miles Davis. It also helped keep his band together through a myriad of personnel changes and the untimely deaths of bandmate brothers Jeff and Mike Porcaro.

"Our successes have always been based on hard work," Lukather explains. "It’s like an unseen force that keeps us together. I am the only guy that has stood here and never missed a thing in 43 years. I do it for the love of the music and the belief that hard work still yields results in spite of every roadblock.”

"The Gospel" is more than just an affecting memoir; it's a musical roadmap on how to stay at the top of your creative game. In a world of overnight celebrity and forgotten internet influencers, Lukather earned his "guitar wizard" status the old-fashioned way. He worked for it.

STEVE KUHN TRIO WITH JOE LOVANOMOSTLY COLTRANESteve Kuhn’s stunning new disc Mostly Coltrane opens with the master pianist starkly stating the theme to John Coltrane’s “Welcome.” Like church bells ringing out across a town square, Kuhn’s plaintive, single-note melodic call is the perfect beginning to an album full of serenity and surprise. As the original pianist in the John Coltrane Quartet, Kuhn has a perspective on ’Trane’s repertoire that few others possess. Here, accompanied sympathetically by saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist David Finck, and drummer Joey Baron, Kuhn breathes new life into familiar tunes. On “Crescent,” his assured touch and orchestral use of the piano impart the music with a cinematic sense of drama. And on “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes,” his dynamic comping and motifically-charged solos lift Lovano and company to new heights. Coltrane would approve.(ECM, stevekuhnmusic.com